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yawn Yes, CA has a database of signatures. In order to register to vote, you need to have a signature. For most people the signature is already on file with
by birken 6y ago
yawn
Yes, CA has a database of signatures. In order to register to vote, you need to have a signature. For most people the signature is already on file with the DMV. If you were a resident of CA you can verify this easily, just look at your picture ID... it has your signature on it.
I don't know how other states do it, this post is about California.
- fossuser 6y agoYeah - voter fraud is a common know-nothing talking point not substantiated by evidence. I flagged this article anyway, this isn't really a topic for HN (and the quality of comments shows why).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- holler 6y agohttps://www.kuow.org/stories/it-s-easy-to-commit-election-fraud-in-washington-state https://www.kuow.org/stories/it-s-easy-to-commit-election-fr...
- triceratops 6y agoFrom your article: 'a signature is required when you return your ballot, which is checked against a copy of your signature that's kept on file. Wyman calls it security "at the back end."' So basically like checking voter ID at the polls.
- Alupis 6y agoThis is scary if true. It's a blanket excuse to toss ballots - just claim the signature didn't look quite the same and nobody is there to challenge that assertion or request follow-up evidence?
- untog 6y agoWhy have you assumed there is no opportunity to follow up and check?
- Alupis 6y agoBecause I can't imagine getting through roughly 30 million (adults over 18) ballots in anything resembling a timely manner if we're looking at matching signatures. What more, we're then going to mail, call, visit people who's signatures didn't look like a match? How many of those people will respond?
- birken 6y agoSan Francisco has about 600 polling places, which each are required to have 4 people. That is 2400 polling workers. In the 2016 election, SF dealt with 400k ballots. Assuming all 400k ballots needed a signature match, and it took a trained worker 20 seconds to match a signature, and they worked 8 hours a day, then it would take: 400k ballots / (3 ballots/minute * 60 minutes/hour * 8 hours/day) = 277 worker-days to match all those signatures. If you can get 2400 people to work the polling places you'd probably have no trouble getting 277 people to match signatures, and would get them all matched within a single 8 hour workday. In practice it takes several days, so you'd need far less. It doesn't seem hard to imagine how this could be done. Running elections is one of the most important things that a government does, so they've put some thought into figuring out how to do it.
- Alupis 6y agoEven if your SF scale numbers worked everywhere, and even if signatures were a reliable form of identity verification (which I assert they are not), what do you do when you think there's not a match? Throw away the ballot? Call the person up? Mail their house? Require them to come in and verify their identity? Why not just scan their government issued ID from the start and be done? Why make it harder than it needs to be?
- 6y ago
- Alupis 6y agoPeople's signatures change. The signature at DMV on the electronic pad is hardly a representation of my real pen-and-paper signature. I suspect you're assuming there's some sort of verification going on - but have no evidence of this.